A Mayo Clinic study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session held April 2 to April 4 in Chicago has found adding a digital health tool to traditional cardiac rehabilitation can help patients lose significantly more weight than patients who don't use the tool.
The study from the Rochester, Minn.-based health system found patients who used a digital health tool on their phone during 12 weeks of cardiac rehabilitation were able to lose four times as much weight when compared to patients who went through the rehab without a digital health tool.
The patients in the digital health group lost an average of nine pounds, while patients in the group without digital health lost an average of two pounds. Additionally, the digital health group patients exercised an average of 40 minutes more per week than those who didn't use the tool.
"We were surprised by the magnitude of difference between the two groups," said Robert Jay Widmer, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, and lead author of the study. "These results are exciting because they demonstrate improvement in cardiovascular risk factors over and above guideline-based cardiac rehabilitation."